Month: November 2015

IWRG (SUN) 11/01/2015 Arena Naucalpan [+LuchaTV, Estrellas del Ring, Mano a Mano]
Castillo del Terror, 2015
1) Atomic Star & Vampiro Metálico b Black Dragón & Dragón Bane
A new Black Dragon, who’s appeared on two FILL shows.
2) Leo, Mike, Teelo b Diablo Jr. I, Imposible, Vortize
Leo & Impossible are feuding.
3) Mega, Super Mega, Ultra Mega b Eterno, Oficial AK47, Spector
4) Hijo De Dos Caras b Máscara Año 2000 Jr. © [IWRG IC HEAVY]
Hijo de Dos Caras won the title back in the title rematch, with plenty of interference from Veneno and Canis Lupus. Mascara has 0 defenses. Hijo de Dos is the 22nd champion, this is his 2nd reign.
5) Golden Magic L Trauma II, Súper Nova, Hijo del Pantera, Rafy, Canis Lupus, Trauma I, El Golpeador, Rayan, Astro [cage]
Astro Rey Jr. is (for at least the moment) going by the name Astro due to issues with Mephisto over the Astro Rey Jr. name. Everyone was required to stay in the cage for 10 minutes. First four our were Hijo del Pantera, Canis Lupus, Trauma II and Astro. Last three left were Rafy, Golden Magic, and Golpeador. They did the tease of Golpeador leaving those two to battle it out, but they brought him back in. Rafy escaped, then Golpeador and Golden Magic climbed down the same side of the cage at the same time. They stopped on the apron and started hitting each other, with Golpeador (accidentally) falling off the cage while trying to to hit Golden Magic. Golpeador pulled Magic with him, but it was obvious to all that Golpeador hit the floor first and Golden Magic should be the loser. Instead, Golpeador was declared the loser. He attacked the referee multiple times while protesting. The crowd loudly chanted Fraude and booed Golden Magic. Golpeador eventually unmasked as Ferando Cornejo Camarena, 35 years a luchador, who’d previously wrestled as Tarasco III in this arena.

+LuchaTV has video of the finish, and is where I pulled that GIF. Golpeador clearly screwed up and made everyone else looked terrible – Golden Magic looks like he was gifted (another) win, the promotion looks like they’re being cheating people out of a finish, even the commission looks dumb for not getting involved when they’ve used for overturning finishes in similar situations. (Maybe whoever thought it was a good idea to do that finish also deserves blame.) They might been able to fix it if they just went back in the ring and did another fall or something, but it seems like they just tried to ignore what had happened. The fans who were there did not ignore what had happened. Castillo del Terror seems like one of the matches that gets extra people to come to Arena Naucalpan; maybe it won’t as much next year.

Couple of thoughts about this week’s MLW Radio podcast after some more time to process it

• I (and the people who were with me) talked to a lot of people about the possibility of Sombra going to WWE back in September when we were in Mexico. No one said they had heard anything. My hunch is any reaching out from WWE would’ve happened more recently and it’s seems unlikely the recent developments in Sombra’s career are directly related to that. Plus, there’s always a long gap of time between when WWE starts to talk to someone about coming in and when they actually turn up in NXT, so there’d be no hurry to make those sort of moves unless a deal was done long ago (and then it’d be hard to keep quiet for this long.)  But I dunno for sure.
• Maybe the mystery person in Juarez is just an open spot, hoping Alberto is free? That’s the only way I can figure to get to possibly 2 Alberto appearances (the other being Guerra de Titanes) – and if they didn’t know for sure if he’s going to be there, it’s safer just to list him as a surprise as to not let people down. If he doesn’t show, maybe the mystery spot is a familiar name but not some big jump.

The podcast indicated they’d have a second part as part of VIP service, talking more about Lucha Underground among other topics.

The idea that AAA is still holding out hope for something with Alberto means we may not see a definitive resolution to the AAA Mega Heavyweight championship tonight in Reynosa. We do know Alberto’s not expected to be there, even though the people involved are refusing to stop promoting him. We’re not sure if Laredo Kid will be there; he’s probably booked on the card thru the local promoter and not AAA, but he’s also booked in CMLL arenas through other local promoters. There’s no rule Laredo can’t work both, but there’s also a high chance of lucha politics coming up in some fashion.

No one knows – or at least is saying – what the actual main event is tonight in Reynosa. (It was supposed to be Rey & Alberto vs Cage & Mundo.) We do know that Guerra de Titanes is not far away – there are only about two weeks of tapings after tonight’s show –  and there’s no matches set for the card. Promos have hinted at Angelico & Jack versus Pentagon & Lider, something involving Daga & Australian Suicide, and something involving Johnny Mundo & Rey Misterio (and maybe LoKi, who had a promo on Noti AAA this week building up a feud with Rey.) This is about the time those matches should start to be set. The tag title guys meet in the tercera tonight, Daga & Suicide meet in the second match.

You can see the full card here. AAA tweeting out live results of their tapings seems to be a thing of the past, but the results should turn up sometime Tuesday.

For it’s part, CMLL’s normal Monday taping in Arena Puebla has Thunder versus Euforia in what is likely to be an outrageously horrible match. (Get hyped!) The main event is the Sky Team versus the Cavernario, Negro Casas and Mr. Niebla, which might actually be the best current trio of the Peste Negra. Malayo, Fuerza Chicana, Rey Samurai and Millneium are the Puebla locals working tonight. Tonight’s show is back to the normal starting time if you’re in the US or Mexico border towns – 10 pm ET/9 pm CT. If you’re in a place without daylight savings time – like Japan – it remains an hour later until March. (So, Tuesday at noon in Tokyo.)

Crossarmbreaker has a comprehensive lucha libre match recommendation list from this year.

Mexican lucha libre wrestling suddenly hot with LA hipsters is the title of an article. Sure. It does sound like last week’s Lucha Va Voom’s show went well, as they have been for some time.

Lineups

ELITE (THU) 11/05/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Omar Brunetti & Vaquero Jr. vs Joker & Sádico
2) Esfinge, Gallo, Pepe Aguayo vs Exterminador, Maléfico, Ráfaga
3) Estrellita & Silueta vs Chik Tormenta & Pantera
4) Laredo Kid, Pegasso, Rey Cometa vs Damián 666, Mr. Águila, X-Fly
5) Atlantis & Carístico vs La Sombra & Último Guerrero

This is the first Thursday show at this venue since a FRAM sponsored show in 2010. Main event then had Mistico & Sombra too, but on the same side. Semimain teams up members of Real Fuerza Aerea; those three haven’t teamed together since 2007.

CMLL (SAT) 11/07/2015 Arena Coliseo
1) Leono vs Apocalipsis
2) Último Dragoncito vs Pequeño Violencia
3) Súper Halcón Jr. vs Okumura
4) Hombre Bala Jr. vs Sangre Azteca
5) Princesa Sugehit & Silueta vs Amapola & Tiffany
6) Super Porky vs Kráneo
7) Dragon Lee, La Máscara, Valiente vs Ephesto, Morphosis, Ripper

Kind of wonder if this lineup was originally drawn up for last week, since it continues Kraneo Singles Match Week a little longer. Why is Leono/Apocalipsis happening?

CMLL (SUN) 11/08/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Explosivo, Rey Halcón, Star Black vs Demonio Rojo, Gran Kenut, Mercenario
2) Flash I & Flash II vs Joker & Sádico
3) Cristal & Lluvia vs Chik Tormenta & La Pantera
4) Esfinge, Gallo, Vaquero Jr. vs El Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón
5) El Hijo Del Rayo De Jalisco Jr. & Pepe Aguayo vs Mosco X Fly & Mr. Niebla
6) El Dandy & Negro Casas vs Fuerza Guerrera & Satánico

This seems a mix between the Elite card and locals card which have been on Sundays of late. Perhaps Negro Casas was supposed to be here yesterday to explain why the main event was happening.

X-Fly & Niebla is an amazing team. Hijo del Rayo is the name Rayman used a decade and a half ago and its’ a surprise to see him use it again. I’d guess the Cristla in the third match is the one who shows up in Mexico City a lot, though she’s listed as a CMLL rep on this show.

No card for Sunday’s Elite Lucha Arena Mexico show yet.

CMLL (SUN) 11/01/2015 Arena México [CMLL]
1) Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Violencia b Aéreo & Angelito
2) Hombre Bala Jr., Star Jr., Súper Halcón Jr. b Canelo Casas, Espanto Jr., Nitro
Tecnicos took 1/3.
3) Ephesto, Hechicero, Luciferno b Guerrero Maya Jr., Rey Cometa, Stuka Jr.
Rudos took 2/3. Starting with this match, the losers were dragged off to hell.
4) Blue Panther, Super Porky, Valiente b Felino, Mephisto, Vangellys
Tecnicos took 2/3.
5) Marco Corleone b Kráneo
Marco took 1/3.
6) Atlantis, Mistico, Volador Jr. b Gran Guerrero, Negro Casas, Shocker
Gran Guerrero replaced Ultimo Guerrero on Monday.

The Dia de Muertos costuming looked nice here as well, though it seemed to be less of a draw the second night out. They had the lights on by the middle of the card on Friday at the crowd looked to be at least as much as the Caristico/Elite Lucha Libre show, maybe a bit more. The lights are down on all the photos of Sunday’s show.

Elite Lucha Libre (SUN) 11/01/2015 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Omar Brunetti & Vaquero Jr. b Exterminador & Maléfico
Exterminador replaced X-Fly, Omar replaced Esfinge. Tencicos took 1/3.
2) El Cuatrero, Forastero, Sansón b Furia Roja, Mr. Trueno, Rey Trueno © [OCCIDENTE TRIOS]
The Dinamita children took falls 1/3 to win the titles. Truenos/Roja fall on their second defense.
3) Estrellita & La Vaquerita DQ Chik Tormenta & La Pantera
Tormenta & Pantera were DQed for excessive violenca. CMLL team took fall 1 and made challenges after the match.
4) Mr. Águila, X-Fly, Zumbi DQ Esfinge, Laredo Kid, Rayman
moved down a spot, with Esfinge & X-Fly added (and teams changed around.) X-Fly unmasked Rayman for the DQ. Crowd cheered the rudos.
5) Fuerza Guerrera & Satánico b Bárbaro Cavernario & Black Terry
Cavernaro replaced Casas. Satanico & Fuerza took 1/3.
6) Carístico & Máximo b La Sombra & Rush
Tecnicos took 2/3, the second by mask pull DQ and the third by la Mistica.

Negro Casas was booked here and in Arena Mexico, which seems like a pretty large oversight. Attendance here also looks better than normal but not a sellout by any means. The people who were there seem very excited but there’s not another one of them.

The Monterrey KDNA promotion announced on Saturday that today’s AAA show was suspended. They’ve begin offering refunds today. There’s no reason given for the show not happening, but it’s clearly because Alberto is off the show. The promotion of the show for the last week had entirely been around it being the last chance to see Alberto in Monterrey with AAA. (In retrospect, that looks crazy. No matter was was said, there was always a chance this could be the outcome once Alberto went to WWE.) They could’ve run the show without him, but maybe the commission put their foot down.

Meanwhile, the promoters of tomorrow’s TV tapings insist they haven’t heard anything from AAA about Alberto and are still expecting him. WWE people have told Wrestling Observer that Alberto will be at RAW, and not in Mexico. Konnan, on MLW Radio, said Alberto would not there. AAA is sometimes so disorganized that it’s conceivable that no one’s still told the local promoter, but it’s a stretch.

AAA has made no official statement on the situation outside of Dorian’s single message a week ago that more news would be coming. I guess it’s still coming! On that podcast, Konnan says Alberto’s told him that Alberto has said he’s willing to come back to lose – and still hopes to get him for 1 to 2 tapings – but WWE has said he can’t lose. (This may be true, it also may be really convenient.) It’s not clear what Alberto will do on those shows if he can’t lose the title – it’s not even clear what tapings that’d be, since he’s already off the Juarez taping and there’s no other taping he’s listed on right now.

The big news from the MLW Radio podcast is mentioned in passing – WWE told Alberto who told Konnan that they sent 10 people to Mexico to look for possible people to sign, and the only person they found was La Sombra. (Unsure how they missed Rush.) Konnan says he’s not sure if Sombra is going to WWE. They spent about 3 seconds on this conversation, so it’s tough to get more out of that. Definitely Sombra deciding he’s out of CMLL would explain both losing his mask and teasing an Ingobernables split and we know Sombra’s tried out for WWE before. Still, Konnan said he didn’t know if Sombra was going and there’s nothing else indicating he might.

There’s also some talk about Myzteziz. Rey seemed not to think it was the time to do Rey/Myzteziz – fans had been asking about it since he got back, but Myzteziz had just started to turn heel and Rey knew the quality demands on the match would be huge. Rey thinks Mytzeziz was hurt by himself and Alberto coming in and pushed him down the totem pole. Rey wanted the rematch to be both mask/mask and career/career (which obviously says he was planning on losing.) Rey talks highly about Fenix, Pentagon Jr. and picks Cibernetico as a surprising guy he’s like to work with. Rey is high on Flamita – then is told the guy he saw was actually Aerostar. He like Rey Horuz and seems sure he’s going to Lucha Underground, and he’s looking forward to working with LoKi on upcoming shows.

The updated MDA/FULL show in Monterrey’s Arena Jose Suliman has Super Porky and Rey Bucanero in Caristico and Averno’s spot. Still a couple weeks left for more changes. The Elite Lucha Libre still has a show on 11/15 in Arena Mexico with Caristico – if the Ingobernables are in Monterrey, it doesn’t leave many people to be the main event rudos. Ultimo Guerrero has to actually be healthy by then, I think.

Vampiro says he’s headed to Los Angeles to start work on Lucha Underground tomorrow.  Not sure if that means LU work starts tomorrow or if he’s just headed to LA early. That Twitter post lists Vampiro as in Duluth, Minnesota. I can not imagine Vampiro in Duluth, Minnesota. There’s been no hint or suggestion of a new announcer, so I’m thinking it’s most likely Vampiro’s still one. We’ll know in a couple weeks.

Mistico (II) was a special guest at the F1 race in Mexico and was mentioned on the broadcast, as follow up the bit with him and Lewis Hamilton from a couple days ago. As much as Caristico (Mistico I) is the story to lucha libre fans, Mistico was involved in this publicity stunt and is on a weekly TV Azteca show. He’s more mainstream at the moment. I don’t know if it’ll amount to much – the TV show was moved to a late night slot in the US a couple weeks ago, so it can’t be doing all the well – but he’s not disappearing.

Flamita (and Drastick Boy) finished up earlier today in Dragon Gate with another win. People in Dragon Gate expect Flamita to be coming back to Japan in 2016. Konnan again said AAA expected Flamita to sign with them full time when he returns from Japan. I dunno, but these things can’t both be true. I’m not feeling too confident about AAA saying they’re sure they have someone on their roster at the moment, but I’m sure he’ll be on the tapings he’s listed on.

Golpeador lost his mask to Golden Magic in Arena Naucalpan’s Castillo del Terror cage match – because that was the finish. It sounds like they tried to do an ending where both fell off the cage at about the same time, but Golden Magic would land first, only Golpeador landed first a bit too obviously to the crowd. He still lost his mask. Maybe this will make more sense when there are pictures tomorrow.

LuchaWorld has KrisZ’s news update and Vandal writing about Titanes en el Ring. Alfredo is also talking lucha on the latest Winter Palace podcast.

RobViper has a music video of 05/02/15 AAA

Super Libre had many guests talking about today’s Elite Lucha Libre show.

Lucha Memes/Chairo added Keira vs Aeroboy to the 11/20 Arena Lopez Mateos show.

Cronica y Leyendas looks back at Mil Mascaras vs Gran Titan in a mask match.

Eric Mutter writes about why Aerostar should be heavyweight champion.